I feel it is a great responsibility to represent Saudi women in this gathering today, during a most turbulent time in Arab and Muslim history as we are facing so many radical changes on the political, social and economic scenes, imposed upon us, by the architects of the new world order or (disorder), to break down our own value system, our heritage, beliefs and natural development process as a society and all that our ancestors fought for to build this country, and reconstruct instead a new one tailored to their ambitions in order to control our lives and, hence our destiny as a free, independent nation. These sudden and unpredictable changes in the world have cast their shadows over us only to distract us from shaping our own future and will create an environment through instability, which kills the drive for progress, because it lacks the feeling of personal initiative and secondly, because it threatens our very existence, let alone our hopes to build our future according to our needs and interests. Hence, our burden is great and the path is full of obstacles.
This regional political instability I speak of is inevitably hindering the social and economic progress which we are seeking as a young nation; on the other hand it is an old civilization that has contributed greatly to world history at large in every manner; you are all aware of the great “Introduction” of Ibn Khaldoon. What did he say in this introduction to history? He basically said that the more primitive civilizations, because of their greater drive and aggression, do succeed in overwhelming older and greater civilizations militarily, but ultimately they themselves are in turn overcome by the achievements of the more sophisticated conquered people, because of their need for their achievements in order to cater to their new and increased needs effectively. This has happened so many times in history that we hardly need to cite. For example, the early Muslim states benefited from various aspects of the great civilizations of Byzantium, Iran, India, and China and later on, they themselves in turn were to become the source of European Renaissance, the harbinger of modern Western civilization.
Basically, the point I wish to make is that, while civilizations borrow and benefit from each other willingly or unwillingly and in accordance with the needs of the people and the environment, either way, it is required of us to be carefully selective in borrowing from other civilizations in order to acquire all that is truly beneficial and can add to the continuously improving process of our own heritage and our long-term aims. We can develop this in ourselves by cultivating a critical attitude toward whatever we receive from other cultures through interaction, and by learning from them, which represents an invaluable experience.
Therefore, we can say that any external initiative for change which is not based on the consciousness of the people, their beliefs, trust, and historical heritage will face absolute failure in the long term because it will be alien to their existence at large.
Recently, in Muslim societies, women’s issues have come to the fore with inexplicable obsession and force supported by very conspicuous pressure from foreign powers and international organizations with the intention of reforming our laws regarding women. So, our duty is to acknowledge and make clear that all Muslim societies have deviated from the true ideals of Islam regarding the status of women just as they have deviated from the Islamic precepts concerning every aspect of their lives. There is a huge gap between what Muslims’ beliefs are and what they actually practice. This gap has been widening for centuries and especially more recently after Arab independence from colonial rule at the beginning of the 20th century, because of some of the Arab and Muslim leaders and intellectuals, instead of developing their own course for renaissance for their nations based on the principles of their own Islamic civilization, have borrowed foreign ideologies and doctrines extending from the far left to the far right. These, as we know, have in turn drastically failed because they have disregarded the very distinctive and dynamic characteristics of their Islamic societies. The adoption of these foreign thoughts and dogmas has had disastrous consequences on the Muslim world because they ignored the complexity of the Muslim experience manifested in almost all aspects of life. This has eventually led us to economic and social backwardness, scientific bankruptcy, and intellectual stagnation, as well as our weaknesses in several sectors and fragmentation as a nation. Any attempted comprehensive reforms in the Muslim world ought to take into consideration the spirit of Islam and not deviate from it because the problems of Muslim societies are due to their deep detachment from Islam and not because of their attachment to it.
The West also has to realize these aspects in dealing with our societies. They have to leave us alone to pave our own path and to create our own renaissance that we are more desperately in need of than at any other time and this can come only through cooperation and not domination. We are able to achieve progress and development for our society as we have always done but that needs political and economic stability both on the regional and international level. However, we have been deprived of these two factors more than ever since the recent unfortunate Sept. 11 disaster, with the invasion of two Muslim states and others also on the list. These developments have been casting their shadows even on our local social and charity work in the Kingdom; donations decreased to a very low level because of fear of retribution, and we have been subjected to new regulations that have made it very difficult for us to help poor families to sustain their livelihood and have disturbed the status quo of our society as a whole and particularly low-income families in several aspects. As is known, we are affiliated with the Ministry of Social Affairs and have enjoyed over the last four decades the trust of both the community and the officials. These relations have become blurred ever since that event. Our services to the community have been tremendously affected, including development programs for families in general and women and children in particular. Our basic goal and mission has been the empowerment of the family in order to keep it together through education, training programs, advice on legal rights, and finding them jobs. This accumulated skill and experience which we have acquired and the results we have earned for many decades by working with Saudi families and women have also not been made use of by the new emerging local training centers flooding the country and operating in cooperation with foreign NGOs that have come into our country with agenda for change prepared without the knowledge of the dynamics of our social system, values and family structure. Hence, their judgment and understanding of our society can only be based on their own values and not ours. What is of priority to us is not necessarily a priority for them, and what they aspire to achieve for us as the (common good) of women based on their own experiences in their industrial society in terms of equal pay, property rights and the, vote etc., had already been granted by Islam to Muslim women 1,400 years ago. Therefore, and as mentioned earlier because some Muslim countries chose not to develop on their Islamic heritage preferring instead to borrow unquestionably from other people’s experiences, the result is the big price we are all paying and I truly pray to God that it is not too late for us to mend our way. We don’t have many choices now. Either we stand together as a nation, men and women, and generate in ourselves strength from the teachings of Islam in building our future through knowledge, hard work, trust in God and each other and cooperate for a common dream and destiny, or lose our values, beliefs and culture and become weak and easily penetrated and dominated.
Let us show our courage and stand together as the Muslim women of this country in the front ranks before the eyes of the whole world as if a shield to defend and protect all that was entrusted to us by our forefathers; only then can we celebrate our own women’s day, because we would have earned this right with great honors of our own. We want to be remembered in history for our wisdom, strength, and leadership like the great women in Islamic history who paved the road for us, and became our symbol starting with the wife of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) the Lady Khadija Bint Khowailid.
(Fahda bint Saud is the chairperson of Al-Faisaliah Welfare Society. She delivered this speech at the Second Annual International Women’s Day Forum held at Jeddah’s Dar Al-Hekma College yesterday.)
